According to TLMI, conventional press manufacturers have had to raise print and production performance levels to their highest standards due to challenging market forces over the past decade. These include a mature market with high capacity levels, increased consolidation rates, and sharply increased digital press sales. The TLMI Press Index will track the sales of new narrow web presses into the North American marketplace on a quarterly basis.

As indicated in the 2013 North American Label Study (NALS), an estimated 150–155 new narrow web label presses were sold into the North American marketplace in 2011 and about 80–85 in the first three quarters of 2012. In response to the positive feedback received from association members about the Conventional Press Index published in the NALS, TLMI will continue to obtain data from press manufacturers and feature the Conventional Press Index in the association’s Biannual Index & Trend Report.

The index, which is available to TLMI members, will indicate quarter-over-quarter movement for North American press sales from January 2011 to the most recent quarter. Press manufacturers are also being asked to quantify the number of presses that are sold into each major packaging sector: labels, flexible packaging, and folding cartons, enabling TLMI members to track narrow web machine sales in the non-labeling package decoration categories.

TLMI president Frank Sablone, says, “I would like to thank and acknowledge TLMI’s press supplier members for their assistance and cooperation in participating in this important new feature for the TLMI Biannual Index & Trend Report. Without their input, the Press Index wouldn’t be possible, and the TLMI Board of Directors is confident that this section will be a key part of the Index & Trend Report moving forward. Additionally, it allows TLMI press manufacturing members to have access to critical data, and to gauge the general health or contraction rates the market is undergoing at any given time. This is the only index of its kind currently in the marketplace, and we are confident that TLMI members will find this a valuable tool and an asset to the report.”